FAA Supervisors Told Employees They Could Be Fired If Republicans Win

On Wednesday, Cause of Action, a government watchdog group, released documents involving two supervisors at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who may have told employees how to vote in order to keep their job in violation of federal law.

CoA revealed that John J. Hickey, deputy associate administrator for aviation safety at the FAA, told employees at a May 23 staff meeting at the Seattle Flight Standards Division Office that “if the Republicans win office our jobs may be effected (furloughs)…if the Democrats win office then our jobs would not be effected [sic],” according to one e-mail.

“Therefore, when Mr. Hickey made the following short summation of comments,” another employee wrote in an e-mail, “‘If a conservative Republican congress is elected we would probably see continued and/or additional budget cuts… If a Democratic congress was elected, thing would probably remain flat.’”

“My understanding is that more than one employee’s perception was that Mr. Hickey was essentially telling them how to vote if they wanted to keep their job,” Ken Snyder, Supervisor for the Seattle FSDO, in an email released by CoA.